Wednesday, October 31, 2012

More from the Barn and since then, part 3

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA         This is a value sample made simply with drops of dye mixed with gradually increasing amounts of water. Click on the image to see a larger version.

 

PA290011The second photo shows some DSP prints that I made while in class. When home, I pulled out my plastic faux wood grain tool and spread thickened yellow ink on clear vinyl, then took a monoprint from the vinyl. A detail is below.PA290012

 

PA290006Finally, I have another monoprint made using colors from the screened sample pages. I made a DSP screen using leaves from the park out back. While that was set aside to dry, I rearranged the wet leaves and made a monoprint from them. When that was done, I used some thickened dye and a wallpaper brush to color the background all over with tan. Looks somewhat like camouflage, but pretty camo! Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

More from the Barn and since then, part 2

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When I got home, after unloading everything out of the van that we’d taken for the show, camping and class, I had a series of black to pales grey fabrics to dye for a customer. This is the result. After that, the next project was processing the color PA290007samples from class.

This first picture is a color sample made with thickened disperse dyes painted onto paper. The different values of yellow were printed onto fabric as full sheets; the various values of red and blue were cutOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA         from paper and arranged onto paper by color and value. The the result was heat pressed onto each value of yellow.

The last photo is a truncated series of color samples that were mixed the same way as above, but the thickened dyes were printed directly onto the fabric. The colors are delightfully rich. The yellow was screened onto the fabric first, then it was heat pressed and washed out. Once dry, the process was repeated with red, then blue. The next experiment will be to put some clear print paste onto fabric, then screen colors on top. That should show if the print paste resists dye the way it does with MX. It might not be the case because of the dyes subliming. The gaseous dye might just migrate right through the print paste. If there’s no difference, I’ll be able to screen all the colors on as soon as the last has dried, and only heat press once.

Monday, October 29, 2012

More from the Barn and since then, part 1

Here are some pictures of the work that came out of my week with Carol Soderlund at the Nancy Crow Barn, and what I’ve been working on since.

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This fabric happens to be a ‘dye rag’ that I used when working in class. I like this picture because it shows the difference that happens when a piece has been heat pressed. The next thing I did with this piece was to run it through the smocking pleaterPA290015 with widely spaced needles.  Once that was done, I soaked it with a different blue color and let it dry. Then I processed it in the autoclave to set the color and texture at the same time. The second photo shows the finished piece.PA290016

The last photo shows one end that has been spread out and taped down. You can see that the original turquoise remains and the dark blue migrated to the high points of the fabric.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

More from the barn

On Wednesday Carol showed us monoprints from two different surfaces.

Ink on purple plastic sheet
thickened dye spread on heavy (violet) plastic












Monoprint from plastic sheet
Here’s the resulting print.
Then she spread dye onto the hard plastic-topped table – a large surface for a bigger piece of fabric.


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Spreading the thickened dye





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Scratches in the surface make their own patterns in the spread dye

 






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patterns made in the dye with a notched spreader
 
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Adding marks from the pointed tooth edge

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More thickened dye was spread, then patterns were made in it with a stamp, left, and a sea sponge, right.
Here’s the cloth being spread onto the dye-painted surface. Only problem – I never took a picture of the finished fabric!

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Master Class at the Barn

Last week I had the privilege of being in Carol Soderlund’s Visions/ReVisions Master Class at the Nancy Crow Barn in Baltimore, Ohio. No finished work at this time, but I do have lots of pictures!

PA020137Here’s a good picture (I think) of Carol, the Master Cat Herder! She wearing an ensemble of a retired hubby shirt with an applied yoke, plus a tee shirt colored with thickened dye rolled over snow fence.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA         We started working with thickened dye and building up layers of it on screens for DSP (deconstructed screen printing.)  I applied dyes to a screen that was laying on top of several oak leaves plus some string. This was on top of a piece of vinyl, and the dye created a nice layer on the vinyl, except where the leaves were. I laid a piece of fabric on top of the dye that remained and made a monoprint. Then I peeled the leaves off the screen and laid a moist piece of fabric on the leaves. Both pieces are interesting, and both can use more work to be complete. And I haven't even gotten to pictures of DSP yet!
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Thanks for looking, more soon.